Blackbird (Redemption 1)

I wondered if they would feel the same if they knew what William had attempted before and after Lucas shot him.

“Hunting,” Lucas finally said, and even though I couldn’t tear my eyes from the women or William, I was surprised to hear the cool tenor of his voice, and the humor in that single word. “I guess that’s accurate. How did the surgery go? Sorry I didn’t care to stop by and check on you.”

“And why would you?” William asked as his smile broadened into something that made my blood run cold.

“Exactly.”

I didn’t know how William and Lucas were talking to each other so calmly. I didn’t know how Lucas hadn’t attacked him yet, or why I wasn’t screaming at him for trying to have me taken away or killed.

But then I remembered what Lucas had said, and I knew what William was doing.

He’d made his intentions known, and now he was going to torture us slowly until he decided he was ready to make good on his threat against me.

William was playing a game . . . and Lucas was stalling as he tried to find a way to beat him at it.

“It is quite funny though,” William mused, “the things you want as soon as you can’t have them. I cannot remember the last time I just went for a drive, but that’s all I want to do lately. Sadly, I cannot.” His calculating gaze went from me to Lucas, and he cocked his head to the side. “Do you ever have the urge to go for a cruise, Lucas?”

Lucas was studying William intently, his eyes just as calculating, but his face looked oddly bored. He lifted his shoulders slightly. “Not lately. It’s nice to have someone drive you around. I’m sure you’ll get over your urges soon enough.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not.” He shrugged, just as Lucas had. “I have been having these dreams of being back in the UK, cruising over the River Trent.” He trailed off, seeming to get lost in those dreams—but I noticed how still Lucas became. “And then I wake up and realize that I am here, and I won’t be driving again. It’s quite devastating, let me tell you. Almost feels like a betrayal.”

Despite the tension radiating from Lucas, he forced a smirk. “You’re so dramatic lately, William.”

“William. Lucas,” someone called from behind us, but I was only able to glance over my shoulder at the stranger before my gaze snapped back to the man in front of me.

I was too focused on Lucas’s reactions, and the way William was now pinning me with a victorious stare, to do more than that.

Lucas twisted to greet the man who had come but remained facing both William and me as he did. I knew I needed to turn, but I was afraid to have my back to the man in the wheelchair. I took a shaky step away, and shuddered when William’s hand snaked out to grip my wrist.

Lucas’s voice abruptly halted, but William smoothly said, “I’m sorry, Briar dear, I cannot hear you. Can you lean closer?”

I glanced at Lucas, noting the panic he wasn’t able to keep from his eyes even though his face remained impassive.

Men weren’t allowed to touch another’s woman, but a woman also couldn’t be the one to stop the man if he happened to—her man had to. But this wasn’t just any man, this was Lucas’s mentor, and William had just tied our hands in making it seem as though I was in the middle of a conversation with him.

Lucas dipped his head in the slightest of nods, but his arms slowly uncrossed from where they’d been against his chest, and he held them at his sides.

I shakily leaned closer to William, and he said in a low tone, “Look at him, First.”

I didn’t.

“Fine, don’t. I’ve already seen enough in the times that you have.” He laughed darkly, softly and continued on a whisper so neither his women nor Lucas would hear him. “You thought he cared for you, and in turn you fell in love with him—but you only fell for what he wanted you to. Anything he may have told you or promised you were lies to keep you here and happy, to help you progress. And progress you have. To be where you are in six months is remarkable, most take double the time. But let me assure you that it has only been a ruse. Every word and every touch has been to ensure that you would end up here. All of this was one giant lesson, and Lucas taught you well.”

Months ago, I might have believed what William was saying, but not now. I knew Lucas too well to let William try to make me second-guess everything now. It was what he wanted, but it wasn’t going to work.

“Is that why he shot you?” I asked through clenched teeth, forcing myself to hold his cold, blue-eyed stare.

One of his eyebrows lifted, but he didn’t look surprised I knew it had been Lucas, only surprised I would say anything to him at all. “Sometimes we have to make sacrifices in order to better this world.”

“And I’m one of those sacrifices?”

William sent me a look that was so fatherly it shocked me. “Another ruse, my darling. Do you think you would still be alive if it hadn’t been?”

“Do you think you’ll still be alive if you try again?”

That fatherly expression immediately slipped from his face, and something so evil flashed through his eyes before everything went blank. That unnerving calm he and Lucas seemed to have mastered was all that was left when he promised, “You won’t be around to find out.”

“Time to go, Briar,” Lucas murmured. His panic was clear because William grinned wickedly.